So in a follow-up to my post about how we should stop seeing it as a bad thing to fail, I thought I’d share some observations I’ve had over the years of watching my mother teach children.
I am talking from a perspective of an elementary teacher but I hear that in high school and college, it is no better.
Professors now get threatening emails and are getting muscled into giving kids marks that they don’t bloody deserve.
All of this adds up to a society and culture of half-assed workers who aren’t properly educated and trained, which is why a college degree for me, is a rather useless piece of paper in terms of noting whether you have an education, basic skills and brains or not.
I’ve seen so-called graduates (even MBAs) at clients who can’t even do basic tasks, which is frustrating but also beyond pathetic.
Read:
KIDS THREATEN TO SUE YOU FOR NOT GETTING As
She has had kids come to her and threaten: “I will get my father to sue you and GET YOU FIRED because you didn’t give me an A.”
This is not a joke.
She still remembers this bratty, entitled child who threatened to get her sued because she didn’t give them an A that they didn’t deserve.
Luckily, her father had (slightly) more brains and told her that he couldn’t get her fired because she was a teacher.
Never mind that he didn’t tell her: “You’re a rude, disrespectful BRAT for even having said that to a teacher and I’m going to make sure you never act like out that again, and we are going to go apologize to her TODAY,”, he just indulged in her self-righteous entitlement.
Parents, you are welcome to the monsters you’ve created.
Please don’t be surprised when they grow up to the age of 35 and still expect you to pay for them and let them continue to “find themselves” while living in your house and treating you like servants and walking bank accounts.
PARENTS DO THE WORK FOR THEIR KIDS NOW
I have heard horror stories of parents in college who are still writing essays and doing the work for their kids.
Really? Is this a thing now? Whatever work you hand in, doesn’t have to be yours and you can take ALLLL the credit for it?
Oh wait, that actually does exist in companies now.
At a company I worked with, they had so-called “project managers” who didn’t do JACK SQUAT except run off to Starbucks, sit around listening to their iPod and pretend to respond to emails, yet took ALL OF the credit on behalf of their hardworking, overworked consultants making their disastrous project a semi-success.
Yep.
Lots of great, greedy, credit-grabbers around us, who don’t do anything and learned at a young age to use people around them to do their work, but then bask in the glow and glory of praise at the end.
This is why when I say things like: But I deserve it. I worked hard for it., I am told indirectly that I should be verbally slapped down and “humbled” because it’s not good to be proud of your accomplishments and achievements.
I was told to give the credit to everyone on the team, even though they didn’t do anything to help me, and that it wasn’t befitting of me to take credit.
Yeah. Guess how long I lasted working for them?
YOU CAN’T FAIL CHILDREN WHO DON’T PERFORM ANY MORE
I have seen some abominable essays being submitted by kids.
To make sure I wasn’t being biased because I’m a grown adult who can read and write with ease, I went back to my old essays in school from Grades 2 – 8.
I compared my work from Grade 4 – 8, and realized that I wrote better than they did in Grade 4, than these kids in Grade 8.
Granted, I was a bookworm and a stickler for the language, but … STILL! GRADE 4.
I told my mom: You should fail these kids because they simply have no idea how to write in English. You can’t pass them! How can you say that they know how to write in English and should move on to the next level!?
She said: You can’t fail kids any more. You have to give them a passing grade at the minimum and move them on. Otherwise, you open yourself up to being harassed by parents and possibly being sued.
……
Spelling is not a requirement any more, and neither is knowing what words actually mean:
- heel / heal
- there / they’re / their
- affect / effect
Basic grammar is out the window. You can now start sentences with “And”, and “Because”, and you don’t need to use capital letters or periods to end sentences.
Even in college, I hear professors are getting papers with smiley face emoticons ” 🙂 ” as part of the essay.
Note: On a blog the rules are quite lax for me, but when I wrote essays I had some SERIOUS rules I followed when I wrote a formal paper. No bending allowed.
You have to let kids “spell in their own way”.
“EDUKASHUN” is now acceptable.
You can’t tell them that they’re wrong either, because they’re not wrong.
They’re different, unique, special snowflakes who deserve coddling and help and need to find their own way.
To top it all off, these kids at age 13, are supposed to know how to write coherent sentences, perhaps not at college-level, but when I see the vocabulary they use, it’s like reading the work of someone in Grade 3 or 4.
It’s pathetic.
YOU HAVE TO LET KIDS HAND IN THEIR WORK LATE
If a kid can’t finish their work, you have to give them a passing grade and/or let them hand it in late.
No docking of marks for late hand-ins, no automatic zeroes.
I was still of the last generation that got automatic zeroes and marks taken off for forgetting to write your name on a paper, but apparently that is not allowed now.
YOU HAVE TO “ACCOMODATE” CHILDREN
NOTE: I am ALL for helping kids with real problems like dyslexia, and who struggle to comprehend basic things because it just doesn’t come easily to them.
I think they really do need help and patience, but there are plenty of kids without learning disorders out there who pretend to have them so they can get help.
A few examples:
- If a kid can’t read a test even in Grade 8, you have to let them take it home to do it
- They can also do the test with an open text book and/or with their parents
- They also need to have accommodation in classes where teachers have to point out answers
You have got to be kidding me.
I remember freaking out before tests because we weren’t allowed open books and people came up with some creative ways to cheat like hiding notes and so on.
Now, you can just ASK to be accommodated and the teacher has to let you do what you want.
IT IS PRETTY EASY TO GET CLASSIFIED AS GIFTED THESE DAYS
You just have to have average intelligence and work hard.
That’s it. You’re “gifted” and a genius now.
Einstein would roll over in his grave if he knew he was being lumped in with these folks.
Knowing how to spell words like “library” makes you a goddamn genius.
Even my mother’s expectations for writing and spelling for the kids, has reached to such a low standard that she crowed when she marked a paper that had only 2 spelling mistakes on basic words.
O_o
PARENTS GET UP IN ARMS IF THEIR KIDS DON’T GET As
Parents get really angry if their kids don’t get As.
They come in to parent-teacher interviews and they basically rip you a new one because their precious Billy didn’t get a perfect score which would screw up his chances of getting into a good high school.
Never mind that Billy didn’t deserve anything but a failing grade and my mother was kind enough to pass him through English anyway, but Billy’s chances of the top high school now, are RUINED and it is ALL YOUR FAULT.
Not Billy’s.
No no.. we can’t put any onus on Billy to do any work or their parents to raise standards for their own kids. It’s ALL THE TEACHER’S FAULT.
Is it any wonder that Billy ends up not being able to make it in the real world, struggling and unable to reach his “potential”?
Or worse, he makes it in the real world with heavy subsidization from his parents with their connections and money, and ends up screwing up a department and being a lazy jackass, but is unable to be fired because he’s the esteemed son of so-and-so?
Ridiculous.
Welcome to the Age of Entitlement.
I’m rather scared to see what will happen in the next 10 – 40 years when these “educated” children enter the workforce without basic skills and education.
(My nephews and nieces included.)
